Blue M Cafe @ The Artist's Gallery, Lurline St, Katoomba

Blue M Cafe @ The Artist's Gallery, Lurline St, Katoomba
Saturday 29 July, 2006

After a morning of antique & bric a brac shops we had worked up an appetite. We drove through Katoomba and headed down towards Echo Point. Lurline St is full of galleries, B&B's and cafes.

Blue M Cafe is situated in the Artist's Gallery. There is a large steel/ tin sculpture out the front of a man with the body of a bull. Interesting. Inside there were displays of local produce for sale e.g. mayonnaise, jams, mustards etc with plenty of testers. Further inside were several small rooms full of paintings, sculptures and vintage clothes. The cafe spills outdoors too and it was packed. At the rear of the house is an R rated exhibition of paintings/ art.

The Artist's Gallery supports local and emerging artists and it apparently the largest art space in the Blue Mountains. We were welcomed and invited to sit anywhere - the staff even moved several tables together so that we could spread out and read the papers. On the shelf behind our table were the Saturday papers which we skimmed at leisure.

I love places that serve all day breakfast - this is such a wonderful offering. I opted for the scrambled eggs with goats cheese and jalapeno chillis served with yeasted sourdough toast.

My lunch buddies were a tough audience....when the coffees didn't arrive within 5 minutes the service was deemed poor however I enjoyed their friendly approach and felt the service was very good. My food was excellent - the goats cheese was served on top of the eggs and slowly melted through. The jalapenos were scattered throughout the eggs and not overpowering. Thumbs up!

The only serious complaint from our table was the turkish bread was impossible to cut with the knives provided - two of my lunch buddies had turkish bread sandwiches - one enjoyed and one didn't.

I like a place that supports it's local community. The art is not necessarily to everyone's taste but it is out there, contemporary and worth a look. The food is simple fare also utilising the produce from the local region. I liked it and judging from the crowd it has quite a following.

Blue M Cafe @ The Artist's Gallery - 171 Lurline St, Katoomba - (02) 4782 6828

http://www.theartistsgallery.com.au/